4th Brooklyn man faces federal charges in overseas terror plot

A Brooklyn man was charged Monday with raising money to help three defendants already in custody in a plot to travel overseas to join the Islamic State terror group, according to a federal indictment.

Dilkhayot Kasimov, 26, a native of Uzbekistan, helped collect more than $1,600 from several people for one suspect, Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, of Kazakhstan, to use in Syria, federal prosecutors said in a news release.

Kasimov is scheduled to appear Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom.

It was not clear if he retained an attorney.

Kasimov delivered the money to Saidakhmetov at Kennedy Airport shortly before he was arrested on Feb. 25 trying to board an Istanbul-bound flight, according to U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch's office.

Electronic messages show that Kasimov also encouraged others to participate in violent jihad and "made clear his role in facilitating the travel of foreign fighters to Syria," prosecutors said.

Diego G. Rodriguez, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI's New York field office, said Kasimov was "a money man" to help Saidakhmetov join the terrorist group, also know as ISIL or ISIS.

Kasimov is charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization and attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. He is the fourth Brooklyn resident charged in the plot.

"Money is the oxygen that fuels terrorism. This investigation proves again that we will leave no stone unturned to disrupt the finance, support, or membership in terrorist organizations like ISIL," NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said in a news release.

Saidakhmetov and Abdurasul Juraboev, 24, and Abror Habibov, 30, both natives of Uzbekistan, all pleaded not guilty March 13 to the same chargesas Kasimov. The arrests were announced Feb. 25. They were ordered in permanent detention after their March arraignment, pending trial. Their next court date is June 19.

Prosecutors said Saidakhmetov and Juraboev planned to travel to Turkey and then onward to Syria to fight for the terrorist group. Juraboev had previously purchased a ticket from New York to Istanbul and was scheduled to leave last month, authorities said.

Habibov, who is suspected of helping Kasimov with the fundraising, was arrested in Florida, authorities said.

The February arrests came a week after a British hunt for three teenage girls suspected of traveling to join the Islamic State group made news, triggering warnings about the threat of domestic recruitment over the Internet.